Discover more about Richard Meier's architecture and the design of the Getty Center site in this 45-minute tour. Meet the docent outside at the bench under the sycamore trees near the front entrance to the Museum.

Collection Highlights TourDaily11 amMuseum Galleries, Getty Center

This one-hour tour provides an overview of major works from the Museum's collection. Meet the educator at the Museum Information Desk.

Explore the rise of Los Angeles as an international locus of architecture in this special one-hour overview of the exhibition Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future: 1940–1990. Meet the educator at the Information Desk.

Virginia Heckert, curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and John Tain, assistant curator of Collection Development, the Getty Research Institute, lead a gallery talk on the exhibition In Focus: Ed Ruscha. Meet under the stairs in the Museum Entrance Hall.

Exhibitions

The Life of Art: Context, Collecting, and DisplayDailySouth Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

From the time an object is made until the day it enters a museum's collection, it may be displayed, used, and perceived in different ways. The Life of Art takes selected objects from the Getty Museum's galleries and encourages visitors to sit down and spend time with them, offering the opportunity to examine them closely to understand how they were made and functioned, why they were collected, and how they have been displayed. Through careful looking, what may be learned about the maker and previous owners of a French gilt-bronze wall light, for example, or the transformation in England of a Chinese porcelain bowl? Close engagement reveals the full lives of these works and why they continue to be collected and cherished today.

Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke YamamotoDaily through August 25, 2013West Pavilion, Lower Level, Getty Center

This exhibition presents the work of two photographers whose careers spanned much of the twentieth century, or the Showa Era (1926–1989) as it is known in Japan. Hiroshi Hamaya (1915–1999) and Kansuke Yamamoto (1914–1987) began as teenagers to experiment with various formal approaches and techniques in photography. As their work matured, however, they took very different paths. Through the display of works from Japanese as well as U.S. collections, the exhibition examines two important strains in Japanese photography: the documentary investigation of regional traditions and social issues, represented in the work of Hamaya; and the avant-garde movement that developed in the context of Western surrealism and advanced through the work of Yamamoto. These two trends not only reflect significant, though rarely shown, activity in the history of Japanese photography but also reveal the complexity of modern life in that nation since the Meiji Restoration.

During the period 1940 to 1990, Los Angeles rapidly evolved into one of the most populous and influential industrial, economic, and creative capitals in the world. This dynamic exhibition provides an engaging view of the region's diverse urban landscape, including its ambitious freeway network, sleek corporate towers, whimsical coffee shops, popular shopping malls, refined steel-and-glass residences, and eclectic cultural institutions. Drawings, photographs, models, films, animations, oral histories, and ephemera illustrate the complex dimensions of L.A.'s rich and often underappreciated built environment, revealing this metropolis's global impact as a vibrant laboratory for cutting-edge design.
Co-organized by the Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum, this exhibition is part of the initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.

Photography has played a central role in Ed Ruscha's artistic practice, most notably in the photobooks he began publishing in 1963. Highlighting important recent acquisitions by the Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute, this exhibition features a selection of prints and materials related to Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965), and Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966). Also on view for the first time are contact sheets from his shoot of the Pacific Coast Highway (1974–75), one of the many streets he has documented extensively since 1965. The exhibition offers a concentrated look at Ruscha's engagement with vernacular architecture, the urban landscape, and car culture. Co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute, this exhibition is part of the initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.

Gardens of the RenaissanceDaily through August 11, 2013North Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

Whether connected to grandiose villas or common kitchens, gardens in the Renaissance were planted and treasured in all reaches of society. Due to their ephemeral nature, most gardens have changed or been lost since the Renaissance, but illuminated manuscripts of the period offer a glimpse into how people at the time pictured, used, and enjoyed these idyllic green spaces. Through a wide range of works drawn from the Getty Museum's permanent collection, this exhibition explores gardens on many levels—from the literary Garden of Love and the biblical Garden of Eden to courtly gardens of the nobility—and reports on the many activities both reputable and scandalous that took place there.

Join an educator for a 30-minute discussion of one masterpiece from the exhibition Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome. Sign-up begins 15 minutes before the tour at the Tour Meeting Place.

Join an educator for a one hour tour of this exhibition, which presents masterpieces of ancient art from Sicily, the island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean. Innovations
in art, architecture, theater, poetry, philosophy, and science flourished here, leaving an enduring stamp on mainland Greece and later on Rome. Sign-up begins 15 minutes before the tour at the Tour Meeting Place.

In 2003, the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired a collection of over 350 pieces of ancient glass, formerly owned by Erwin Oppenländer. The works on view in Molten Color are remarkable for their high quality, their chronological breadth, and the glassmaking techniques illustrated by their manufacture. The vessels are accompanied by text and videos illustrating ancient glassmaking techniques.

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and RomeDaily through August 19, 2013Museum, Floor 2, Getty Villa

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome presents masterpieces of ancient art from the crossroads of the Mediterranean. On the island dear to Demeter and blessed with agricultural abundance, former Greek colonies emerged as powerful kingdoms during the fifth to third centuries B.C. Innovations in art, architecture, theater, poetry, philosophy, and science flourished, leaving an enduring stamp on mainland Greece and later on Rome. Over 150 objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments that shaped Classical culture at its peak.

Relief with Antiochos and HeraklesDaily through May 4, 2015Museum, Floor 2, Getty Villa

On loan from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, a stele honoring Prokleides, a military officer in the Athenian army, is on view at the Getty Villa in a gallery (208) devoted to Religious Offerings. Carved in relief above a public decree are figures of Antiochos, the mythical founder of the tribe Antiochis, and his father, the Greek hero Herakles.